Structure of molding part of a weather strip for use in a slide type rear door

ABSTRACT

There is provided a structure of a molding part of a weather strip for use in a rear door by firmly attaching the molding part in the rear door so as to reduce weight and manufacturing costs and ensures sufficient sealing property. The molding part is attached to a recess together with a slide arm 4. The recess is formed at the front lower end of the rear door. The molding part comprises merely a plate insert except sealing function parts. The sealing function parts elastically contact a car body side. The plate insert is fixed to the rear door by bolts and nuts.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The invention relates to a structure of a molding part of aweather strip attached to a recess formed at a front lower end of aslide door, in which a slide arm is also provided. The weather strip isattached to a manually operated or electrically operated slide rear door(hereinafter simply referred to as rear door) of a car having no centerpillar, ensuring sealing property between the rear door and a frontdoor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] A conventional structure of a molding part is described withreference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

[0003] In a car having a rear door 2 but having no center pillar betweenthe rear door 2 and a front door 1, a weather strip 20 is attached tothe front part of the rear door 2 and elastically contacts the frontdoor 1 for ensuring sealing property between the rear door 2 and thefront door 1.

[0004] With the car having such a configuration, a recess 6 is formed atthe front lower end of the rear door 2, and a slide arm 4 for slidingthe rear door 2 is attached to the recess 6. The recess 6 is sealed by amolding part 21 forming the lower end of the weather strip 20.

[0005] Since this type of car does not comprise a center pillar, amolding part 21 of the weather strip 20 attached to the rear door isdesigned to elastically contact a molding part of the front door 1 andalso an opening weather strip 5 attached to a side edge 3 c of a floor 3b of a body 3. Accordingly, the weather strip 20 is inevitably madelarge, causing a problem of increasing weight and manufacturing coststhereof.

[0006] Further, since the molding part 21 of the weather strip 20 isfixed to the rear door 2 by clips 22, it can not be firmly built,nevertheless building operation is relatively troublesome, therebycausing a problem that sealing property of some areas between the clipson the molding part 21 can not be ensured sufficiently

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0007] The invention has been developed to solve the foregoing problemsand it is an object of the invention to provide a molding part of aweather strip for use in a rear door which is firmly built in the reardoor so as to for ensuring sufficient sealing property and to reduceweight and manufacturing costs thereof

[0008] The molding part 11 of a weather strip 10 for use in a rear door2 is attached in a recess 6 together with a slide arm 4. The recess 6 isformed at the front lower end of the rear door 2. The molding part 11 iscomposed merely of a plate insert 13 except the sealing function parts12 which elastically contacts the side edge 3 c of a floor 3 b of thecar body 3. The plate insert 13 is fixed to the rear door 2 by bolts 14and nuts 15.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009]FIG. 1 is a side view of a car provided with a molding part of aweather strip for use in a rear door;

[0010]FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1;

[0011]FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a conventional weather strip takenalong A-A in FIG. 1;

[0012]FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a part of the conventional weatherstrip indicated by B in FIG. 1;

[0013]FIG. 5 is a sectional view of an upper part of a molding part of aweather strip for use in a rear door according to the invention takenalong line C-C in FIG. 1;

[0014]FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the weather strip according to theinvention taken along line A-A in FIG. 1; and

[0015]FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a part of the weather stripaccording to the invention indicated by B in FIG. 1.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

[0016] An embodiment of a molding part 11 of a weather strip for use ina rear door according to the invention is now described with referenceto FIGS. 1, 2 and 5 to 7.

[0017] The molding part 11 is attached to a recess 6 together with aslide arm 4. The recess 6 is formed on the front lower end of anelectrically operated rear door 2. The molding part 11 is formed merelyof a plate insert 13 except seal function parts 12 which elasticallycontact the rear door 2 at one end and contact a side edge 3 c of afloor 3 b of the body 3 at the other end.

[0018] The side edge 3 c of the floor 3 b of the body 3 includes amember attached to the side edge 3 c, and hence the side edge 3 cincludes an opening weather strip 5 according to the embodiment.

[0019] With the molding part 11 of the embodiment, the plate insert 13is fixed to the rear door 2 by two sets of bolts 14 and nuts 15.Although the number of the bolts 14 and the nuts 15 are two setsaccording to the embodiment, it is set to an suitable number dependingon the size of the molding part 11.

[0020] With the molding part 11 according to the embodiment, the upperend thereof is integrally formed with an extrusion forming part 16, andthe extrusion forming part 16 seals between the front door 1 and therear door 2 at the inside of the car. One weather strip 10 is configuredby the molding part 11 and the extrusion forming part 16. Further, asshown in FIG. 5, a parting seal 9 is attached to the outside of the reardoor 2 to which the molding part 11 is attached to, so that sealingproperty is ensured at the inner side and the outer side of the car.Depicted by 7 is a front door glass and 8 is a rear door glass.

[0021] A roller 4 a is rotatably attached to the interior side end ofthe slide arm 4 fixed to the rear door 2 together with the molding part11. The rear door 2 can be freely slid by allowing the roller 4 a totravel along the guide rail 3 a attached to the body 3.

[0022] Since the molding part 11 is formed merely of a plate insert 13except seal function parts 12, the molding part 11 of the invention isdrastically reduced in its weight and manufacturing costs can be reducedcompared with a conventional molding part where the entire portion isformed of synthetic rubber.

[0023] Since the molding part 11 is fastened to the rear door 2 with thebolts 14 and nuts 15, it can be firmly fixed to the rear door 2 comparedwith a conventional molding part in which a synthetic rubber part isfastened to the rear door 2 by clips. That is, with the fixation of theplate insert 13 to the rear door 2, the former is firmly fixed to thelatter by strongly fastening the bolts 14 and nuts 15, and the plateinsert 13 has high rigidity, so that the molding part 11 is not deformedlike synthetic rubber of the conventional molding part caused by astrong fastening operation. As a result, unlike the prior art, nodefects in sealing property is produced at the portions between theclips, thereby a sufficient sealing property is ensured at the entireseal function parts 12.

[0024] Further, since the molding part 11 is fixed to the rear door 2 bythe bolts 14 and nuts 15 together with the slide arm 4, extra parts forfastening the slide arm 4 are unneeded.

[0025] The molding part 11 of the weather strip for use in a rear dooraccording to the invention is formed merely of the plate insert 13except the seal function parts 12 which are elastically contact the reardoor 2 at one end and contact a side edge 3 c of a floor 3 b of the body3 at the other end, therefore, a weight reduction of the molding part 11can be performed and manufacturing costs can be reduced.

[0026] With the molding part 11 having such a configuration, the plateinsert 13 is fixed to the rear door 2 by the bolts 14 and nuts 15 sothat it can be firmly fixed to the rear door 2, thereby ensuringsufficient sealing property at the entire seal function parts 12.

[0027] Further, since the slide arm 4 is fixed to the rear door 2 by thebolts 14 and nuts 15 which are used for fixing the molding part 11 tothe rear door 2, extra members for fixing the slide arm 4 to the reardoor 2 are unneeded. As a result, an operation for attaching the moldingpart 11 to the rear door 2 is made easy, and manufacturing costs can befurther reduced.

[0028] The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-359157filed Nov. 26, 2001 including specification, claims, and drawings, isincorporated herein by reference.

What is claimed is:
 1. A structure of a molding part of a weather stripfor use in a rear door attached to a recess together with a slide arm,said recess being formed at the front lower end of the rear door, saidmolding part comprising merely a plate insert except sealing functionparts, the sealing function parts elastically contact a car body side,and said plate insert is fixed to the rear door by bolts and nuts.